


Burning Down The Public House

by TheSightlessSniper



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Alcohol, Angst with a Happy Ending, Based on my headcanon that Sebastian CAN get drunk, Dark Comedy, Demon Ciel Phantomhive, Fighting, Fire, Gen, Laughter, M/M, Mild Language, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-Kuroshitsuji II, Pre-Slash OR Platonic, Rated For Violence, Sebastian and Ciel beating the stuffing out of one another, Violence, implied PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 09:44:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7043032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSightlessSniper/pseuds/TheSightlessSniper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sebastian’s eyes were barely focused. A glimmer of devilish magenta glowed behind them, and the hands gripped almost tightly enough to be painful. ‘I should have betrayed the contract. Claude did it to Alois, why the hell didn’t I do it?’<br/>‘…Sebastian, are you drunk?’</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burning Down The Public House

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying to vary my fics involving these guys (because I am a total sucker for fluff but need to stop writing so much of it), and I got inspired by this one gif of Markiplier sitting in a bathtub, sobbing and saying 'I could have been an engineer...'.
> 
> HOW my brain got from that to THIS, I'm not sure, but I laughed.
> 
> Pre-slash OR platonic, feel free to pick. I'm going with the former, but what else can you expect from me?

One drink. That was all it took for the shit to hit the fan. One glass of decidedly average whisky in a common public house bar, and all hell would break loose.

Ciel sighed into his glass, watching Sebastian in his peripheral vision. The other demon was still sulky and sullen as ever, and the misery was really beginning to grate on him. ‘I’m starting to really get bored with your silent grumbling. You lost my soul. It’s over.’

‘It will never be over for me, my lord. I am your butler for eternity.’

There was that defeated tone again.

Ciel shook his head. ‘Get yourself a drink from the bar when you get my next one.’

‘Yes, my lord.’

He was fed up with it. Ciel had imagined that a butler for eternity was going to be the solution to all of his problems. He had a servant who would do his bidding until the end of time; what could possibly go wrong?

Apparently, that servant resenting your very existence was a BIG one. 

Sebastian returned to the table with two glasses, filled with a measure of amber liquid that only vaguely resembled the whisky it claimed to be; it was the poorest approximation he’d ever tasted, and even more so with his demonic tongue. Ciel barely touched his own glass, watching Sebastian sip at his own until the tumbler was empty once more. Even drinking something with that alcoholic burn didn’t phase the other demon; he just drank it, expressionlessly as he had ever been.

When Sebastian’s glass emptied, Ciel downed his in one go, and was about to stand to prepare to leave when two gloved hands descended onto the sides of his face. He whipped up to look into Sebastian’s face, ready to protest at the impropriety, when he noticed the difference in the butler.

Sebastian’s eyes were barely focused. A glimmer of devilish magenta glowed behind them, and the hands gripped almost tightly enough to be painful. ‘I should have betrayed the contract. Claude did it to Alois, why the hell didn’t I do it?’

‘…Sebastian, are you drunk?’

‘Fuck you. You’re not my mother, my lord!’

The former earl was stunned. Sebastian had never once spoken in such a manner towards him. He’d never even heard him use such language in front of the other staff, or when they had been on a case. To know the butler could even speak such words was baffling enough, but to hear him say them in his direction had rendered the younger demon completely speechless.

‘What did you just-‘

‘I could have had your soul, you insufferable little brat!’

People had started to stare in their direction. A young woman was trying to not stare at the heated exchange, and some of the rowdier crowd at the other end had grown quiet, suddenly intent on eavesdropping.

‘You’re making a scene, wh-‘ a fist connecting with his cheek stopped his protest in its tracks, and he cascaded off the bar stool to the floor.

One drink was all it took for his butler to become intoxicated and punch him to the floor.

Ciel shook off the shock, and swiftly repaid the hit with his own; he slammed his heel into Sebastian’s knee, causing it to buckle and send the butler crashing down next to him. There was a shout from the barman to break it up, but Ciel had already quickly clambered over Sebastian’s torso and had started relentlessly pummelling his balled-up fist into the other demon’s face.

Sebastian retaliated immediately; in a split second, he flipped his lord into the wall, delivering a sharp kick to his abdomen and relishing the sound of his pelvis crunching. The younger let out a loud grunt, but it didn’t stop him. If anything, the pain of broken bones mending themselves just intensified his own intent to assault.

The lit candles flared in their holders. The few electrical lights dotted around the room flickered, and the young bar girl squeaked in horror as they all simultaneously exploded, sending sparks flying into the curtains.

The room descended into chaos. The patrons of the pub began throwing their drinks at the curtains to put out the fire, but the flames only grew bigger and more uncontrollable the harder the demons fought on, locked in a fierce brawl that nobody could dare to break up for fear of losing a limb. The stunned bar-goers could only watch on as Ciel used the chair next to him as leverage, hopping onto it and then swinging roughly up onto his butler’s back where he swayed, scratching at his eyes while sinking sharp teeth into his neck and tearing at his flesh.

Sebastian let out a raged howl and yanked the younger’s arm, tugging him off his shoulders and flinging his smaller body into the wooden bar top. Ciel crashed over the other side and into the bottles of liquor on the back shelves, smashing them and spraying shards of glass flying to the floor and a variety of alcoholic drinks soaking into and staining the former Earl’s once-pristine blue attire. Even bloodied hands full of broken bottle didn’t phase him, because a moment later, Ciel hopped back over and leapt onto Sebastian’s chest with a feral roar, tearing at his head with elongated claws.

The fire grew, building higher and hotter. The staff quickly quit their efforts to extinguish the blaze, and had taken to ushering the drunkard patrons to the safety of the street, leaving the two immortals thrashing in the inferno.

’I-SHOULD-HAVE-TAKEN-YOUR-DAMN-SOUL!’ The butler clenched a fist tight into his master’s slate-coloured locks, and slammed the other into the side of Ciel’s face and chest at each and every word.

It was all coming out in one horrific mess. All the pent-up resentment and rage bubbled to the surface and burst out in a rush of violence like blood from a severed carotid. It was heated, furious, savage…and the most passionate display of any emotion either of them had shown for as long as they could remember.

And they were secretly delighting every painful moment of it.

Only when the room was barely more than ash and charcoal and had started to collapse in on itself that they stopped for a moment to survey their surroundings. Ciel blinked at the flames, and suddenly felt paralysed by fear.

The raging fire.

His parents.

Death.

Burning flesh.

Burning.

Burn.

They both sobered in seconds. Sebastian glanced over to him, and immediately sensed the memories that were bubbling to the front of his mind and in an instant, he had gathered Ciel in his arms despite the younger’s protests and lifted them both through the rafters.

They hadn’t even realised how long they’d been fighting; they’d entered the pub in the early evening, the sun only just melting out of sight, and now it was just beginning to peer over the horizon again to signal the start of a new day.

Sebastian only stopped running when they reached a high vantage point. He ground to a halt atop the flat roof and placed Ciel down with a strange reverence; a stark contrast to just minutes before when he had been pummelling the smaller demon’s body with anything he could get his hands on and into any surface he reached.

Their minds unclouded, the two demons glanced to each other.

Their clothes were in tatters, covered in burns, ragged claw marks and ashy smudges. Sebastian’s hair was still smoking from where the flames had caught him on the way out, a significant gash spilling blood down his forehead and over one eyelid. Ciel’s own appearance was a shocking sight; his face was covered in scrapes and burn marks that were slowly healing over, and one of his eyebrows was clearly singed and nearly burned off.

Sebastian’s eyes flared magenta, and suddenly there was something there that Ciel hadn’t seen in a very long time. He looked alive…and amused.

And all it had taken was a fist fight in a bar.

Which they had set ablaze.

The former Earl choked out a dark giggle, and Sebastian’s own baritone chuckle joined it, and before they could stop themselves, they collapsed on their backs and descended into hysterical, uncontrollable laughter.

Sebastian was the first to speak, coughing it out amidst a few last cackles. ’My lord, we have just burned a pub to the ground.’

‘Indeed.’

‘And beaten each other into a new morning.’

Another snort left Ciel and he clapped a hand over his mouth in horror. Sebastian’s eyes widened, and he instantly he was rolling around on the rooftop again, trying to contain his mirth.

As the older demon came down from his giggling fit, Ciel rolled onto one side, staring at him calmly. A strange smile twisted his lips up. ‘…I missed that.’

‘My lord?’

‘Your laughter, Sebastian. I know when you laughed before, you were mostly laughing AT me rather than with me, but…I suppose you don’t realise how much you really miss something until it’s gone.’ He looked away to the brightening blue sky above him and sighed slowly.

He heard Sebastian shuffle next to him, and a warm gloved hand touched his shoulder and squeezed. ‘The past few years have been hard on me, my lord. To know I had your soul…then it was taken away from me, and then I had it in my grasp again and still failed…and to know that I am partially to blame for losing the shot at your soul, having to look into the face of my failure every day is not the easiest of tasks, my lord.’

‘Yes…it is partly your fault. But you must also blame Alois. Claude. Hannah…me. We all played a part in this.’ The younger demon turned back to face his butler again, and watched his reaction carefully.

The other blinked back at him, seemingly shocked, before a smirk blossomed. ‘Yes, I suppose you are right in that respect. You are partially to blame.’

Ciel narrowed his eyes. ’Don’t push it. But…that being said, I missed your mocking, as strange as that might sound.’

‘I missed mocking you too, my lord.’

‘Could you possibly consider doing it a little more in future? For old times’ sake?’

‘…yes, my lord. Absolutely.’

As the bustle of morning broke below, an odd sense of calm settled between them. Ciel locked eyes with Sebastian, and the beginnings of a real smile wormed onto his lips. It was contagious; the butler’s soon joined it.

They weren’t the same as they had been before, and whether they could get past it or not, they were stuck together until the end of time. Although now…the deep-seated tension between them had already shown weakness and signs of splintering and cracking. Ciel had caught a brief glimpse of the butler Sebastian had once been; an attractive knowing grin, a mocking brow quirk, and a glimmer of glowing eyes that quivered with enjoyment…how odd that it now filled him with excitement to see Sebastian smile.

With the unexpected promise of jabs and jokes at the other’s expense, the day ahead was suddenly looking to be decidedly brighter than either of them had anticipated.

One drink. That was all it took to build the foundations of a new relationship.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!


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